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Toronto teams are many things, but not boring: Mudhar

Frustrating, amusing, heartbreaking... sure. But the Leafs, Raptors, TFC and Argos always keep things interesting both in and out of the game.

Amir Johnson, being jokingly flattened by teammate Kyle Lowry, and the rest of the Raptors are keeping things interesting, even though many believe the goal of the season should be losing. (Kevin Jairaj / USA Today Sports)

The weirdest thing about the first episode of 24/7 being boring is that in this town, that’s one thing the Leafs rarely are.

Whatever you want to call Toronto’s teams — frustrating, amusing and heartbreaking come to mind — they tend to find a way to keep things interesting, as much off the playing field as on. It may not be the stuff of championships, but at the very least it’s intriguing.

Maple Leafs: A win on Thursday provided some light while all eyes are watching HBO’s premier showcase, 24/7 — but please let this weekend’s episode highlight be better than coach Randy Carlyle versus a toaster, round two. The show has made even bad Leaf hockey look great, but has not found a way to make the team appear interesting in any way.

Off the ice, though, Leafs fans — and we should use the term loosely — had some fun on Tuesday with an epic social media snafu. The Leafs have been trying to get #SeaofBlue trending on Twitter, while also turning their home page into a virtual billboard with tweets running there.

Well, the company either forgot to set up a filter or didn’t bother with a moderator. In no time, people starting testing the boundaries, found none, and the team’s home page wound up with some gems including “Hitler wasn’t all bad” and “#Seaofpoo”.

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Judging from web ads, the company isn’t abandoning the promotion, but we doubt it will ever be as fun. That said, social media gaffes happen all the time, and in this case it might not be a bad thing. After all, if it had worked perfectly, no one would care. But now I’ll be sure to stop in just to check out if the jokers get a chance to run the roost again.

As for 24/7, let’s chalk that first episode up to setting the stage. There’s still Phil Kessel and Toronto’s goalie situation to look at. As well, Pavel Datsyuk was set up by his teammates, but didn’t have a word in the first episode for the Detroit side.

But to put things in a little perspective, the Raps aren’t the only ones wanting to bottom out. It literally is a race. They’re having the same discussions in the Boston media, although their issue is that new coach Brad Stevens is doing too good of a job with their flawed squad.

No one wants to be in the NBA’s maddening middle tier of teams, and this is a story that will dominate the rest of the season until that supposed pot of gold of a draft happens.

Blue Jays: Can Alex Anthopoulos do it again? The wheeler dealer general manager is likely the closest he’s ever been to the hot seat after generally seeming to fleece other teams in big deals on a yearly basis.

Sure, he might be losing a little bit of lustre after last year’s high hopes were dashed, but due to his track record, don’t you just assume there’s another rabbit he’s going to pull out of his hat before next year? As always, there were rumours out of the winter meetings, but nothing has come to fruition yet.

Toronto FC: It’s been a busy off-season for the beleaguered Major League Soccer franchise. Ex-captain Dwayne De Rosario was selected third in the re-entry draft and now the team has a few days left to sign him — and make nice with a hometown hero-turned-heel who left under a black cloud in 2011.

As well, the mystery surrounding Jermain Defoe continues. There have been numerous reports that the Tottenham striker is on his way to Toronto — and that a call from Drake was what convinced him to come — but there has yet to be any sort of confirmation. While Defoe is a goal scorer who could improve the team’s dismal prospects, this is beginning to feel like it has taken too long to get to a happy ending. But we’ll see.

What else? TSN has unveiled its new set, a sign that the always-simmering competition between Bell and Rogers could be heating up once again. The world juniors are about to captivate Canadians, as always, during this holiday break. After that, it’s a luge slide to the Winter Olympics. There is always something.

Say what you want about this city’s sports teams and their affairs but, thankfully, boring is not a term that comes to mind often.

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